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Caution: This post contains huge spoilers for the plot and post-credit scenes of Spider-Man: Far From Home. Read at your own risk.

After Avengers: Endgame’s one-movie respite from the traditional Marvel post-credits scene formula, Spider-Man: Far From Homearrived with some of the most important post-credits scenes in the history of the MCU.

Both of them are game-changers, the first pertaining to a massive shift in the life of Peter Parker and the other potentially re-contextualizing a Marvel mainstay’s role in the franchise. So what’s going on with those scenes, and what do they say about Phase 4 of the MCU?

Mid credits: Quentin Beck’s last laugh

Before the credits, Spider-Man: Far From Homehas a suspiciously neat ending. Spidey took down Mysterio, accepted the great responsibility that comes with having great powers, and finally got to spend some quality time thwipping around the city with MJ. Everything seems fine until the mid credits scene, which drops two huge bombs on Peter’s Parker’s life.

The first is a posthumous message from Quentin Beck/Mysterio that frames Spider-Man for his own crimes, which include using a holographic drone army to fake the Elementals and destroying a huge chunk of central London. Beck then reveals to the world that Spider-Man’s real name is Peter Parker.

As if that’s not enough of a problem, the mid-credits scene pulls off another shock by introducing J. Jonah Jameson, played by none other than J.K. Simmons, who completely owned the role in Sam Raimi’s Spider-Mantrilogy and is by far Marvel’s best kept casting surprise. This new Jameson appears to be more of a TV pundit than an old-school newspaper guy, but nothing has changed about his unadulterated hatred for (and presumed desire for photographs of) Spider-Man.

The reveal of his identity will surely complicate Peter's life, and Phase 4 of the MCU will begin with one of its dearest heroes in the unfavorable position of looking like a villain. In order for Peter to clear his spider-name, he’s going to have to go up against the court of public opinion and an antagonist big enough to prove he’s a good guy once and for all.

Luckily, there are a few things about that mid-credits scene, as well as one from Spider-Man: Homecoming, that might come in handy for him in later movies.

SEE ALSO:'Spider-Man: Far From Home' uses the might of the MCU to break ground on a new era

Firstly, Beck’s big reveal is clearly doctored footage. One of the audio clips used to frame Peter is of him saying “execute them all,” which happens right around the time Beck dies on screen wearing his motion capture suit. There’s no way Beck could have appeared alive in his Mysterio costume to comment on the “execute” line, which means the whole video is likely an animation created by the remaining members of his Stark-hating Mysterio squad. Team Mysterio, if you will.

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This idea is supported by an earlier scene of one of Beck’s co-conspirators downloading data onto a thumb drive and escaping after the Tower Bridge gambit goes south — Team Mysterio had all of the camera, voice, and hologram assets required to create a video puppet of Beck, and they used that data to fire back at Spider-Man for scuppering their plans to control EDITH.

Hold that thought, though, because it’s about to get funky: Team Mysterio may already have some allies in the fight against Peter Parker.

Team Mysterio may already have some allies in the fight against Peter Parker.

One of the post-credits scenes in Spider-Man: Homecomingfeatured the villains Adrian “Vulture” Toomes and Mac “Scorpion” Gargan meeting in prison. In that scene, Scorpion mentions that he’s putting a team together to take down Spider-Man and Vulture quickly lies to protect Peter’s identity. In the years since Homecoming, however, Vulture may have changed his tune about protecting Peter, especially if Vulture “blipped” and his daughter Liz didn’t. Missing out on five years of his daughter’s life might turn him villainous again, and might make him more amenable to Scorpion’s plans.

This is all to say that revealing Peter’s identity may empower Scorpion to follow through on his plan to create a cadre of Spidey-hating villains, one that might include Vulture and the remains of Team Mysterio. The Beck squad could easily break Vulture and Scorpion out of prison, and it’s possible that later movies might shape this team into the infamous Sinister Six — a team that historically included Mysterio as a founding member.

The final piece of tinfoil in this mid-credits hat is the inclusion of Jameson, who has some bizarre comic-book history with Scorpion. In some comics as well as the recent Marvel’s Spider-Mangame for PS4 (which gets a quick shout-out in Far From Homein one web-swinging sequence), Jameson pays for Gargan to receive experimental treatments that give him scorpion-like powers. The idea is to create a buggy foil to Spider-Man, but instead Gargan ends up a supervillain.

With Peter’s identity compromised, Jameson and his piles of arachnophobic money on the scene, Team Mysterio out for revenge, and a potential Vulture/Scorpion team-up on the horizon, the mid-credits scene of Far From Homeopens up a lot of possibilities for the Sinister Six appearing in Phase 4.

Of course, if the Six does appear, they’d be hard pressed to do it without Doctor Otto Octavius, who is closely linked with the team in the comics. Now there’sa bad guy big enough to make Peter Parker look like a hero again.

End credits: The Talos deception

Samuel L. Jackson and Jon Favreau in Columbia Pictures' SPIDER-MAN: ™ FAR FROM HOME.Credit:

The end-credits stinger in Far From Homeis also important for the MCU, in a completely different way. In this scene, the Nick Fury and Maria Hill seen throughout the whole movie are revealed to be shape-shifting Skrulls. The Skrull impersonating Nick is Talos, last seen palling around with a much younger Nick and Carol Danvers in Captain Marvel. Talos and his Skrull buddy report to the real Nick Fury, who has been hanging out on vacation in space for the duration of the movie’s events.

While the idea of consummate badass Nick Fury drinking rum out of a space coconut makes for a funny end to Far From Home, Fury’s comfort with being off-world and with letting Talos impersonate him raises questions about how long he’s used the Skrulls to accomplish his goals. Nick met Talos in the 1990s, long before Tony Stark became Iron Man and the Avengers Initiative took off. If he trusted Talos to handle something as serious as the aftermath of Tony Stark’s death, what else has he trusted Talos to handle in his absence?

Fury’s the kind of guy who is always two steps ahead. He also had to fake his own death after the events of Captain America: The Winter Soldier. Looking back on some of his cameos in Phases 2 and 3, it seems very possible that some of them weren’t “really” Fury at all. Especially suspicious is his deus-ex-helicarrier save at the end of Age of Ultron, where he appeared out of nowhere running a shadow version of SHIELD — which seems like a lot for one man to handle. Having a convincing double would make Fury’s life a lot easier, especially since his space vacation shows he’s been additionally concerned with extraterrestrial conflicts.

Whether or not later movies will include a fun montage of all the times Fury has actually been Talos is up in the air, but it would be fascinating for Phase 4 to further develop the idea that the Skrulls have secretly been in the background of the MCU for decades. Marvel is so far keeping mum on what’s next for Spider-Man and the rest of its heroes, but Far From Home’s final moments have given fans plenty to think about while they wait for the next installment to come and blow their minds all over again.

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TopicsMarvel